Without a Sword
by Exilo
Summary: A scientific frieghter stumbles upon a dead ship, sending out an SOS. They soon find not all threats are alien in nature. AI-centric, one shot, R&R please.


_Gift to Starseeker347. Her character, Kazanna, also appears in this. Special thanks to Insidious Harbinger, who's character also appears here to, and for beta reading._

_**Without a Sword**_

Orange lights flickered on the platform to the side of the captain's chair, alerting Colonel Reynold Cash that the ship's AI, Kazanna, had something to say. The _Rhiannon_ was a military frigate converted for scientific ends. Their mission was the study of the Covenant species, in the hopes such information would yield some victory. It was a poor hope, that they should find some genetic weakness in Elites, or some horrific allergy in Grunts that would render them all infertile. But humanity was desperate enough to try anything. There were more doctors and zoologists than soldiers on this ship. Heaven forbid even a small Covenant ship should stumble upon them, because they would be blown out of the air in a breath.

Kazanna's avatar was of a young woman, athletic and broad shouldered and wearing a close fitting shirt, open vest, and smooth, bootleg cut denim pants. The clothing was based on a 21st century style, why, the colonel had never understood. She was a "smart" AI and, never content with a single field for study, took part in every study on the ship.

"Reynold," she said when fully materialized.

He rested his head on his hand and his elbow on the arm of his chair. "Yes Kaz?"

"Studies on the Elite blood are…inconclusive. If we had a bit more, it would be good. The dissection of the Grunt, also yielded nothing conclusive. It's…" She shrugged her shoulders. "It's studying aliens. We have nothing to base anything on. No intergalactic Rosetta Stone to understand them. We'll keep trying, but I don…" She stopped suddenly, midsentence. Reynold turned to look at her, and saw as she touched her ear. It was an odd gesture, it wasn't as if she had a radio in her ear that she would be fine tuning, but it was something that she did when she was real, an old habit. It was at times amazing, at times disturbing, what AIs really were. "We are receiving a distress signal. An ONI destroyer, registered the _Our Father's Garden_."

"Are they responsive?" the colonel asked.

Kazanna shook her head.

Reynold leaned back in his chair, thinking carefully. "More than likely, the crew fled a Covenant raid. Last man managed an SOS before succumbing. No telling how long it has been a float."

"We could just destroy it. Or we could try to board it and tow it. It's your call."

"We can't afford to leave it out here. If the Covies find it that would be bad. And we can't afford to lose a ship like that just willy-nilly blowing it out of space. You could tow it back, right?"

Kazanna nodded, a slight smile spreading across her features. "Of course I can, sir. I can do anything."

He nodded passively. "I think we've got a squad of marines on the ship. Round them up and get them ready. This isn't the Covenant's style, but I wouldn't put it past them."

Kazanna nodded, before blinking away. With ease she spread through the ship;she had grown so accustomed to its curves and crannies she could spread through so easily, be almost everywhere at once almost. She had called the ship home for almost six months now, she called the crew her family, even if they didn't always see her as anything but a tool.

To her luck, she found all six marines in the mess, at the same table no less. Due to her extensive roles on the ship, it had most all been converted to be easier for her to address anyone, any place. Even the mess hall tables had small hologram projectors at the center that let her pop up so to address them in a more casual fashion.

Private Fitzgerald was drinking a bottle of water when the orange solidified into a woman, and abruptly began to choke in shock. Private Foster smacked his back until he caught his breath. Going around the table, it was Private Fitzgerald; Private Foster; the twins, Private Anton Carlson and Bernie Carlson; Corporal Sawyer, and Captain Paper. She spun on her heels, looking at each, then setting back to Fitzgerald. "Duty calls, boys. Be at the air lock in ten." And she disappeared.

She zipped back to the bridge, and to the colonel's side. "They're ready. Foster will probably be wearing the interface helmet, so I'll keep a line up."

"What if it's a Covenant trap?"

"I'll wipe myself clean," she said passively. "But I want to get that ship running ASAP. If a Covie notices the SOS they'll be on us. At the least I need to shut it off."

"Kazanna. Just be careful."

"Always am, sir." She smiled before blinking away. She reached the hangar before the marines, and waited for them to come, even took a moment to explain to one of the crew what mixture of fuel the Pelicans would be needing. Instead, Sawyer was wearing the interface helmet. Kazanna was upset about that, but didn't let it bother her too long. She shrunk into a small chip, which Sawyer ejected and put into his helmet, before putting the helmet on.

It felt different. Inside the helmet's computer, it was small and cramped. She could see through the camera on the helmet's side, but she didn't like that. Vision was narrow and short, and what she saw was dictated by where Sawyer turned his head. She liked Foster, and he liked her, and if she requested him to look around, he did. Sawyer was a bit different. He scared her. He was a bit older than the rest of the squad, and very quiet, and yet he seemed to have an intense disdain for almost everyone around him. She wouldn't bother asking him to look around.

They piled into the dropship, and flew from the _Rhiannon_ to the new ship easily enough. Fitzgerald was carrying a shotgun, as he was serving as the point man. He was first out. If Kazanna had a lip, she would be biting it. Sometimes she just felt so useless. If this was a trap and the Covenant were waiting for them, what could she really do? At most, she could order Reynold to make a random jump with the _Rhiannon_, then wipe herself clean so the Covenant couldn't interrogate her. Sawyer was watching Fitzgerald, so Kazanna could see him, and she was terrified that a blue orb would arc through the air and stick to the marine's helmet. But nothing came.

"Hangar secure," Fitzgerald said, and the rest of the squad came out. It was dimly lit, andapparently only the emergency lights were working. Bernie touched the door's panel, and it opened. He didn't type a code or anything, it simply opened when he touched it.

"Anton, Bernard," the captain said. "Stay here and guard the Pelican. Foster, Sawyer, take the left hallway. Bridge should be that way. Fitzgerald, you're with me. We'll secure the rest of the ship, make sure there is nothing out here."

The squad broke apart. Kazanna was tempted to ask Sawyer to give the helmet to Foster, but her lack of will made itself known again. She was spineless, figuratively and literally.

"You smell that?" Sawyer asked. Kazanna stayed quiet. Not like she had a nose anyway.

"How can I not?" Foster said, gagging. "Smells like rot."

Kazanna's senses perked. "The crew maybe?" she asked, voice sounding through a speaker in the helmet's back.

They drew closer to the bridge, by how the two marines gagged and choked. Kazanna assumed the smell was getting much worse. She wanted to do something. She wanted to say something, but what was there to say or do? Best she could do is was stay quiet.

Then Foster collapsed. He was walking in front of Sawyer, so Kazanna could see him take a step: putting his left leg forward. When the weight shifted to that leg, the knee bent out. He slumped against the wall, then slid slowly to the ground. Sawyer screamed, and ran to his side, shaking him furiously. First his hands passed over the body, looking for an entrance wound, assuming he had been shot. Then he checked the pulse on the neck.

"Corporal!" Kazanna's voice rang through the helmet. "Corporal, what happened?"

"Shut up!" Sawyer screamed, yanking the helmet off. He threw it hard against the wall, and it bounced to the ground. Kazanna, like any "smart" AI, was based on a once living human's brain. That woman was dead now, though there were times Kazanna "remembered" her life. There were times when she remembered riding a horse on the beach, galloping happily over the sand with the salty wind in her face. She also had a memory of falling off the horse, hitting the ground, and breaking her arm. If she had to compare being trapped inside the helmet and thrown against the wall to anything, it would be falling off that horse. It was a feeling of fear and helplessness, and a revolting heave in her stomach to her fingers and toes. The helmet spun on the ground, making her dizzy. It finally stopped, and she was upside down. That wasn't a huge problem. She just adjusted the camera and her vision was righted. She saw Sawyer, on his knees, on all fours. He was shaking his head, again and again. Slowly, his front dipped and he touched the ground, and settled heavy on his belly.

Again, Kazanna just felt helpless. She was trapped in the helmet, unable to move or crawl to Sawyer to see if he were alright, and shehad no clue what happened to Foster. She activated the radio, trying Reynod, but she couldn't get through a heavy wall of static. Sighing, she tried the twins.

"Kaz?" Bernie asked. They had the same voice, but only he gave her the nickname, so she knew it was him.

"Something is wrong. Foster and Sawyer are down. Poison gas maybe? No gunshots. Something is jamming the communications. We only have short wave. Get on the Pelican and seal it. The filter and recycler should keep you safe."

"Yes ma'am."

There were footsteps. Kazanna adjusted the camera, and noticed a black shape approaching from down the hall. "Get in touch with the captain," she said. "Tell him to get to the ship. Then take off. Tell Reynold the situation."

"What about you Kaz?"

"Get out of here. That's an order." Technically, she didn't have a rank, but before he could protest, she cut the radio off. She panned the camera out to better see the newcomer, and watched him squat down and check Foster's neck, then Sawyer's.

"He-hey," Kazanna called out. "Name and rank soldier."

He looked around, and she noticed he was wearing a gas mask, which must have saved him life. Was it Fitzgerald? Or Captain Paper? No, the body was different.

"Down here," she said. What she would give for arms to wave.

The man in black gathered up the helmet and looked to it. "I am Kazanna," she said. "UNSC AI. You?"

His voice was muffled by the gas mask, but she managed to make out "Private Hudson. Darwin."

"What is going on here?" she demanded.

"I'll tell you later." Setting the helmet under his arm, he moved down the hallways at a brisk jog. Again, there was an uncomfortable bumpiness, but it was better than laying on the ground.

Private Darwin Hudson opened a door and stepped inside. He, somewhat carelessly, tossed the helmet away. Rather than hit a wall though, it was caught in the arms of Captain Paper. He lifted the helmet to his face. "Kazanna, you alright?"

"Yes sir. Foster and Sawyer though, I don't think they made it."

He turned the helmet towards the door, and Kazanna saw Darwin sealing the threshold with tape. This seemed to be someone's personal quarters. It was stuffed with supplies: rations, weapons, an air purifier, a heater, as well as five more people by her count, the crew of this ship, and there was Fitzgerald lying on a bed. No hologram projectors, as far as she could see. She wasn't lucky enough for that.

"I was on a mission to kill a Brute," Darwin said, taking off his mask. "Some ONI cloak and daggers shit, I still don't understand. Shortly after I got on, the ship's AI went a gas that killed almost everyone quick and quiet. A few of usmanaged to get on masks. I mean, at first we figured it was just something with the air purifiers. But then it started hunting us. I mean, literarily, it was hunting us down. Someone stepped through a door, and it closed on them. It poisoned the water. It changed the temperature to boil us, then freeze us. Then boil us again."

"Any thoughts on why?" Captain Paper asked.

One of the others spoke. "No clue. Jupiter…uh…the AI, has never been anything but a gentlemen. He's a dumb AI, so I would doubt rampancy. He must not have noticed you when you first came. Now that he sees you, he'll blow you out of space before you reach your main ship. And he's jamming all radios. We managed to hack out an SOS, but that's all we've managed to crack. If you've got an AI with you, our best shot is the bridge. Take it, and have your AI hack the systems."

The helmet moved, making Kazanna a bit dizzy. She finally came face to face with Captain Paper again. "Can you hack the computer?" he asked.

Kazanna was tempted to make a joke about having no mouth, but needing to smile, but didn'twhat with the gravity of the situation. "Yes sir. I am sure I can crack it."

Captain Paper sighed. "We move as one group. Masks on tight. The bridge is probably sealed, so we'll have to blow the door. Once we are on the bridge, Kazanna uploads. First thing you do is get our radios you can rip this homicidal prick to pieces."

"I understand sir."

Again, he sighed. "Kazanna, no sense in carrying the whole helmet. No one can wear it with the gasmask. I'm just going to yank the chip, alright?"

She cringed heavily. "I…I understand sir. Go ahead."

AIs didn't have real senses, like real people did at least. She didn't have eyes to see, or ears to hear. She had nothing that would offer a sense of smell or skin to give a sense of feel. But somehow, she felt Captain Paper's fingers on her, squeeze her, yank her away. She couldn't see then. Couldn't hear. Couldn't speak. Then there was just nothing. Perhaps being in the helmet was comparable to being strung up by chains. She was immobile, perhaps, but there was freedom to see. This…this was like being in a sound proof, black box.

Then there was a sudden burst of light, and a wonderful freedom of movement. She stretched and spun and danced in this new, wonderful freedom, finding herself in an open world. She could move here. She could stretch and scream as loud as she wanted. And she could see. She began spreading through the system, taking every camera for herself and gazing out upon it.

How she wished she hadn't. The crew of this ship had been killed by the gas, and the traps set up by the AI. There was no way Darwin and his company would have had the time or resources to dispose of the bodies, so they were just left where they fell, to rot in the hallways. If she could, what she saw would have made bile spill out of her mouth. Bodies in assorted levels of decay and decomposition, stacked on top of each other and filling the hallway.

That shocked her back to her duty, and she began searching through the virtual world for the signal that jammed the transmission. She sped through system after system, searching, and finally finding transmitter on the top of the ship. It was easy enough to remotely shut it down, and after a moment, she zipped into a hologram transmitter on the bridge. Once more, she stretched, gradually spreading out over every system in the ship. "Captain," she said as her hologram took form. "Quick…send the message!"

Then, just like that, she blinked away. She felt something that a human would call pain surge through her body, enough that she screamed in a sudden surge of agony. She recoiled, and retreated, returning to a more centralized space in the ship's bridge, gathering all her strength and focus in a small area. Her area.

"This is not your place child," said a voice. She retreated tighter, reinforcing her small area and waiting for another attack.

"Who are you?" she demanded. She stretched a moment, and retreated, taking her normal form and waiting to be confronted.

The ship's AI came to face her soon enough. His color was a deep blue. His form was one of a tall, muscular man, dressed in something of a Greek toga. "My name is Jupiter. I am the designated AI of this ship. You shall leave, or I will take measures to remove you."

Kazanna stared a moment. "What is your mission?" she asked. "Why did you kill all those people? We are supposed to protect them, not slaughter them."

"My mission is to guard the secrets of this ship from all intruders. The crew proved unreliable in that mission, they brought an unregistered operative onto the ship. He compromised the security of this ship."

Kazanna shook her head. "Fucking dumb AIs."

"I will take measures to remove you," he said, and a sudden surge of agony ran through Kazanna. She felt crippled inside, the surge lancing and shocking her to the ground. Only intense concentration let her ward off the attack.

Jupiter may have been a Dumb AI, but he knew this ship. He knew it's every curve. He knew it's every system. He knew how to use the firewalls and defenses to pick a rival AI apart. There were programs that could run, viruses that could be released, to cripple a program as much as a bullet could cripple a man. They were precautions so that an AI could fight a Covenant hack, but they worked just as well against a fellow UNSC system. And this was Jupiter's ship. He knew everything about it, every system and defense.

Kazanna cringed, retreating into a small ball of concentration. He was pounding her, ripping her and trying to open her up to an attack. She fled. She zipped through the system to a different part of the ship, to the systems that controlled the airlock. Jupiter followed, and again she was left open to a sudden shock that nearly left her dead.

"You brought this upon yourself," Jupiter said, appearing before her. "Do not ask for pity. I must protect the secret."

She caught her senses, and held herself together from the next blast. She couldn't fight here. He knew everything. He knew every turn she could make, and every method to attack. She needed to…

"I know your secrets," she said. "And I will spread them with the world." Again, she zipped as fast as she could, speeding through the systems in a tight ball of sentience. Just at her heels, Jupiter followed. She sped to the transmitter. To jam a signal, a signal had to be sent out that would negate the first. To do that, a transmitter of the utmost strength was needed. It would be risky, but it was a chance she was willing to take. She filled the transmitter with herself, before sending her sentient mass through the waves and to the _Rhiannon._ Again, there was that horrible time where she was cut off of everything, when she was nothing but waves, spinning through the vast recess of space. She crashed into the _Rhiannon_'s systems, and took a few long, wonderful moments to feel the familiar warmth of her home, before she felt Jupiter enter behind her. His taint in her home was the worse she could ever imagine, worse than a thousand shocks he could send her.

Still, she found herself smiling as she instantly spread out through her home, taking hold of every inch of system in the _Rhiannon. _First thing was first: she cut off any transmission throughout the ship, corralling Jupiter in a single small space. Oh, he tried to fight. He tried well and fought hard. But Kazanna had prepared for this for months. She had prepared for some Covenant hacker to come. She had worked worms and viruses, kept them safe in files. And corralling Jupiter inside a small space, squeezing him and crushing him. She released everything into him, and when he was weak, strand of data by strand of date, she ripped him apart. Piece by piece, she wiped his data clean, and rewrote the files to be nothing.

Again, the glow of orange by the shipmaster's chair alerted Colonel Reynold Cash of Kazanna's presence. He turned to her, confused. "What happened?" he asked. "I got a report from Captain Paper that…I don't know where to begin. What happened though?"

Kazanna smiled. "It's a long story sir. I'll detail everything in a report. Would you please just tell the captain the ship should be fine for piloting now?"

The colonel shook his head. "Yes. Of course. Well done Kazanna."

She smiled sweetly. "Thank you sir."


End file.
